It took 6 minutes
to intubate me
after respiratory
arrest
6 minutes
brain injury at three
almost certain death
at five
6 minutes
it took
the odd thing is
there’s no time when
you’re in the coma
that follows that
respiratory
arrest
it doesn’t exist –
no perception of
any plane
no perception of
the nothingness
to remember
no color
no thought
no nothing
6 minutes
it took
it took
so much
Common Cognitive Symptoms of HAI
- Short-term memory loss. This is the most common cognitive symptom, especially among those who have HII. The reason is that the part of the brain that is believed to be responsible for learning new information, called the hippocampus, has neurons that are highly sensitive to oxygen deprivation.
- Decline in executive functions. Disruption of such critical tasks as reasoning, making judgments, and synthesizing information. This can lead to impulsive behavior, poor decision-making, inability to direct, divide, or switch attention.
- Difficulty with words, also known as anomia. These linguistic problems include not being able to remember the right word, selecting the wrong word, confusing similar words, not understanding commonly used words, and so on.
- Visual disturbances. Difficulty processing visual information can occur in some cases. One rare disorder is called cortical blindness, in which the area of the brain responsible for vision becomes disconnected from the rest of the brain. Because the brain cannot tell that this part is damaged, people may appear to act as though they can see even though they display no ability to identify or recognize objects, shapes, or colors.
For more information see: Hypoxic Anoxic Brain Injury
